Mngwan Jui
General information Phonology Consonants The only possible consonant cluster is /mŋ/. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is a feature of the tone system. Vowels Dipthongs There are three classes of dipthongs with base vowels/semivowels /i/, /j/, and /w/. The vowel /i/ cannot be attached to any of these bases. Tripthongs The possible tripthongs can be constructed from three base vowels/semivowels, /æ/, /j/, and /w/. The tripthongs with base /æ/ are constrained to either /j/ or /w/ for the second sound, and can use any vowel for the third sound. The tripthongs with base /j/ or /w/ can use any vowel for the second sound and are constrained to use the vowel /u/ for the third sound. When the second sound is also a /u/, it becomes a long vowel. Romanization Table Phonotactics The syllable structure of Mngwan Jui is CV(n). C is any consonant or consonant cluster, and V is any vowel or dipthong/tripthong. The optional n is any nasal or accepted stop. The possible consonants for n are /ɳ/, /ŋ/, /m/, /p/, /k/, /ʈ/, and /ɖ/. All stops are aspirated when final. If the initial sound of the syllable is the same as the initial sound of the dipthong/tripthong, then the combination is not possible. Tones There are eight tones in Mngwan Jui, with three flat tones and five contour tones. The tones shall be described with a lowest to highest pitch scale from one to five. In the romanization the tones are marked with the corresponding number, and in the IPA transcription they are marked with a superscript pitch scale. The broken rising tone is characterized by a glottal stop after the rise, and then a flat high tone. The glottal stop usually comes between the base and the rest of the dipthong/tripthong, or duplicates the vowel; e.g. /e/ becomes /eʔe/ with the second e having the high tone. The extra high tone is any pitch higher than the 5 of the high tone. Each of the tones have opposite pairings which are used in declensions, conjugations, etc. Grammar Morphology The morphology of Mngwan Jui is mostly agglutinative, although there are some inflections. Compound words are formed with the new word preceding the modified word. Declension zhap3, the root word for stick and juit2 the root word for leaf shall be used to illustrate the declension of nouns for number. The number suffixes have no defined vowel or tone, so they borrow from the word they modify. If a tone is contoured, it is reflected in the opposite contour. If the vowel borrowed is a dipthong/tripthong, only the base sound will be borowed. If the base sound is a semivowel, borrow the next vowel. For compound words the final word is borrowed from. Conjugation The conjugation suffixes also have no defined vowel or tone, but indicate tense by the first consonant and aspect by the final nasal. The borrowing of vowels and tones rule from declension still applies. The root baeing8 which means to do shall be used as an example. Copula The copula kwa3 acts like the English is or the Japanese desu as it links the subject with the predicate. The copula acts like a verb, therefore it is subject to the rules of conjugation. Derivational Prefixes The prefixes are used to derive new words from the same root, and can not act as stand alone roots. Derivational Inflection The inflections also are used to derive new words. Any accidental homophones caused by tone inflection are distinguished by context. In the case of negative inflection of compound words the tone of the base word is reflected. Pronouns Pronouns have three root words that express grammatical person, and prefixes that denote the gender and if the pronoun is collective. Pronouns with collective prefixes can be declined by number to further specify the amount, and the singular declension is ignored. Demonstratives and Indefinite There are several classes of demonstratives that are modified by prefixes that borrow the base vowel of the root according to the rules of declension and exhibit the opposite tone regardless if it is contoured or flat. The initial consonant of the prefix mirrors that of the root and the final consonant varies based on the form of the demonstrative. Exceptions to this rule are the negative, universal, and existential forms, which vary the initial consonant and mirror the final consonant to the final consonant of the root. If there is no final consonant, there is no borrowed final consonant. The determiner kaek4 is modified by either its initial or final consonant depending on the form, and does not have any prefixes. The demonstrative precedes the noun it modifies if it in fact modifies anything. Adverbs Adverbs can be derived by attaching the prefix zhjep6 to an adjective. Not all adverbs can be derived from adjectives and vice versa. Underived adverbs always have a final e sound. Postpositions Postpositions in Mngwan Jui can modify a noun or a verb, creating a postpositional phrase. The postpositional phrase is placed preceding the modified word. All postpositions can be derived from the postposition word fjuhm4 that is inflected with sound and tone for different meanings. These are used for phrases not accounted for with the case particles. Some postpostions can only be used for verbs and some only for nouns. Syntax The syntax of Mngwan Jui is highly structured with postpositional particles marking case, mood, and other. Case/Mood Particles Most particles in Mngwan Jui express case or mood, and are attached after the word for case or attached to the end of the phrase for mood. Some case particles require the attached word to be in a specific position in the sentence. Other Particles The other particles are also postpositional, or go at the end of the phrase. The postpositional particles replace any case particles, and in the case of listing, the first word in the list recieves the case particle. The end of phrase particles are placed after any mood particles. Adjectives The accepted order for attaching multiple adjectives to one noun is: #demonstrative #intensifier adverb #qualifiers #noun adjunct #head noun Word Order The canon word order for Mngwan Jui is Subject Object Verb. The word order of the Subject and Object is flexible because of the accompanying case particles. The adjectives are placed preceding the head. Transformations There are a few transformations in Mngwan Jui, which are achieved by word order or by attaching the appropiate words or particles to the subclause. Passive To change the sentence voice to passive, one must place the object in front of the subject, thereby changing the word order to Object Subject Verb. Most users of Mngwan Jui will use the standard word order unless they are speaking politely, in which case they will use the passive construction. Relativization To change an absolute clause to a relative subclause, one must attach the relative word preceding the clause and place the clause after the word it modifies. If a verb in the subclause is in progressive or habitual present form, it must be changed to perfective present form. Examples: mngwaet3wing3 mngju7 dung2di1 fuht3buhm3 jin4jing2di1 kwa3kam3 man singular nominative | relative word | fish singular accusative | to catch arbitrary past perfective | here accusative | copula present perfective The man who caught the fish is here dung2wing3 njuhp2 mngwaet3wing3 fuht3buhm3 jid4paei2di1 kwa3kam3 fish singular nominative | relative word | man singular nominative | to catch arbitrary past perfective | tasty accusative | copula present perfective The fish the man caught is tasty bet2bwuun6wing3 mngwaet3di1 zhuhim5 dung2di1 fuht3buhm3 king2kim4 I singular nominative | man singular accusative | relative word | fish singular accusative | to catch arbitrary past perfective | to hate present perfective I hate the man who caught the fish bet2bwuun6wing3 dung2di1 bin1 mngwaet3wing3 fuht3buhm3 ngam1bam1 I singular nominative | fish singular accusative | relative word | man singular nominative | to catch arbitrary past perfective | to eat arbitrary past perfective I ate the fish the man caught Nominalization To change an action clause to function as a noun, one must change the subject to have the genitive case particle, and derive the verb to a noun using the derivation for process or state. The subject posesses the process with the genitive particle, and the process takes the particle of its case in the sentence. Vocabulary Example text